Augmented reveals the stories behind the new era of industrial operations, where technology will restore the agility of frontline workers. Technology is changing rapidly. What’s next in the digital factory? Who is leading the change? What are the key skills to learn? How to stay up to date on manufacturing and industry 4.0? Augmented is a podcast for leaders in the manufacturing industry hosted by futurist Trond Arne Undheim, presented by Tulip.co, the manufacturing app platform, and associated with MFG.works, the open learning community launched at the World Economic Forum. Each episode dives deep into a contemporary topic of concern across the industry and airs at 9 am US Eastern Time every Wednesday.
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The Augmented - the industry 4.0 podcast is a refreshing and informative podcast that delves into the world of Industry 4.0, digital transformation, and empowering frontline workers through the use of augmented tools. Unlike many other podcasts on this topic, The Augmented provides real insights from individuals who are on the ground, actively involved in manufacturing and operations. Host Trond Arne Undheim does an excellent job finding guests who are doing fascinating work in these areas and allows them to speak freely, resulting in engaging conversations.
One of the best aspects of this podcast is the range of topics covered. From discussions on training and industrial technology to the changing face of the workplace, each episode offers valuable insights into important subjects that impact some of the largest job forces in the world. The podcast features industry-leading experts who provide their perspectives, which adds depth to the conversations. Moreover, Trond's ability to connect with his guests makes for an enjoyable listening experience.
While it is difficult to find any negative aspects of this podcast, one potential drawback could be that it may not appeal to those looking for a more general overview or introductory content on Industry 4.0. The discussions can get quite technical at times, which may be intimidating for listeners who are new to this topic. However, for individuals already involved in building the future of manufacturing or interested in diving deeper into these subjects, The Augmented is an invaluable resource.
In conclusion, The Augmented - the industry 4.0 podcast is a must-listen for anyone seeking knowledge and insights on Industry 4.0 and digital transformation in manufacturing and operations. Trond Arne Undheim's ability to bring together industry leaders and engage them in thought-provoking conversations sets this podcast apart from others in its genre. Whether you are already familiar with these concepts or just starting out, The Augmented offers a wealth of information and perspectives that will leave you excited about the future of these industries.
This week's guests are Ryan Infantozi (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-infantozzi-202ab723b/) of VEKA, Esmeralda Gonzalez (https://www.linkedin.com/in/esmeralda-gonzalez-m/) of Stanley Black & Decker, and Cuyler Monahan (https://www.linkedin.com/in/cuylermonahan/) of Agility EMS. The three represent a new generation of frontline engineers—dedicated shop floor problem solvers applying digital technology to tackle the diverse set of challenges each of their operations face on a daily basis. The three share best practices and lessons learned on the shop floor, how manufacturers can attract the next generation of engineers and operators, and their take on the pros and cons of a citizen development approach to digital transformation. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guests: Cuyler Monahan, Esmeralda Gonzalez, and Ryan Infantozzi.
This week's guest is Jim Fox (https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-s-fox/), SVP of Americas Supply Operations at AstraZeneca. Jim explains how digital manufacturing in pharma has evolved over his nearly 3 decades in the industry, from basic automation and data collection to advanced predictive modeling and integrated digital ecosystems—and why having humans in-the-loop continues to be critical despite these advancements in autonomy. He also shares his perspective on building trust in emerging technology, the continued importance of lean principles, and the tension between regulation and speed to market. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Jim Fox.
This week's guest is Joel Fidalgo (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-fidalgo-7b6347121/), CIO of NextPharma. Joel shares how NextPharma is bridging IT and operations to lead digital transformation across a decentralized CDMO network, and taking a modular, app-based approach to MES and eBR. He also explores the changing role of the CIO in driving innovation on the shop floor, the importance of cross-functional collaboration, and the challenges of scaling standardized solutions across diverse sites each of which have their own unique requirements. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Joel Fidalgo.
This week, Natan Linder (https://www.linkedin.com/in/linder/), Co-Founder and CEO of Tulip (https://tulip.co/) sits down with Madilynn Castillo (https://www.linkedin.com/in/madilynncastillo/), Tulip's CMO for a recap of their experiences at this year's Hannover Messe—the world's largest industrial trade fair. They explore the overwhelming AI hype at the fair, the confusion it creates for manufacturers, and the persistent gap between marketing and real operational impact when it comes to these shiny new tools. Plus, an overview of the latest developments from Tulip that debuted at the show. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Madilynn Castillo.
This week, we're at Hannover Messe, the world's largest industrial trade show. We're foregoing our usual episode this week, but, we'll be recording our annual on-site episode at the show later this week covering the state of the industry, analyzing the trends we're seeing, and cutting through the hype to figure out which of the latest technologies on display here at Hannover will have real impact on the shop floor. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming next Wednesday. Stay tuned! Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/).
This week's guest is Audrey Van de Castle (https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-van-de-castle/), Senior Director of Operational Excellence Technology at Stanley Black & Decker. Audrey breaks down the challenges of scaling digital initiatives across 100+ manufacturing sites, how to balance governance with citizen development, and the need to move past the buzzwords and invest in technology that can make a difference on the shop floor today. She also shares insights into her unconventional career path from running a makerspace to becoming a digital transformation leader, best practices for working with IT, and her passion for building fighting robots (https://youtu.be/4fbwtajq5XA). Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Audrey Van de Castle.
This week's guest is Erik Udstuen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-udstuen-00000), Co-founder and CEO of TwinThread. Erik shares insights from his 30+ years in industrial software, discussing how AI and digital twins are transforming manufacturing by standardizing data, optimizing operations, and driving operational excellence. He also dives into the challenges of industrial data standards, the importance of empowering engineers with no-code/low-code tools, and why AI must go beyond insights to deliver real-time, actionable recommendations on the shop floor. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Erik Udstuen.
This week's guest is Nicolette Naya (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolettenaya/), Senior MES Engineer at a leading luxury jewelry manufacturer. Nicolette shares insights into how she helped digitize centuries-old manufacturing processes, the challenges of introducing technology to the shop floor, and the importance of a structured governance model to successful digital transformation. She also explores the role of citizen developers, sheds light on her own career path from intern to digital transformation leader, and shares advice for others looking to follow in her footsteps. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Nicolette Naya.
This week's guest is ZJ van de Weg (https://www.linkedin.com/in/zegerjan/), CEO of FlowFuse. ZJ shares his journey from an intern at GitLab to now leading FlowFuse, how open-source technology is transforming industrial operations, and why Node-RED has become the go-to platform for low-code manufacturing connectivity. He also takes a deep dive into the challenges of scaling open source solutions in enterprise environments, the value of an ‘open-core' business model, and the future of IT/OT collaboration. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: ZJ van de Weg.
This week's guest is Vijay Chinnasami (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijayan-chinnasami-6595a931/), former COO of Ultra Clean Technology. Vijay shares an inside look into how electronics supply chains and manufacturing practices have evolved over his 35+ year career, the rise of EMS and ODM business models, and how the semiconductor industry is shifting in response to global pressures. The discussion also explores best practices for building a culture of continuous improvement, balancing humans with automation, and adapting management approaches to local cultures. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Vijay Chinnasami.
This week's guest is John Harrington (https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-harrington-142906a/), co-founder and Chief Product Officer of HighByte. John shares how his experiences working on Kepware at PTC led him to co-found HighByte, why Industry 4.0 requires a fundamentally different approach to interoperability, and the importance of contextualizing data in manufacturing. He also breaks down the real value that a Unified Namespace (UNS) approach can bring, whether frameworks like ISA-95 are still relevant, and the age-old OPC vs MQTT debate. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: John Harrington.
This week's guest is Kence Anderson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kence), CEO of Composabl. Kence and Natan explore the role of AI agents in industrial processes, how manufacturers are using them to solve complex problems like scheduling or machine control, and the challenges of building startups in the manufacturing space. Kence also lays out how his concept of machine teaching differs from traditional machine learning techniques, and why he believes in taking a composable approach to building solutions for problems on the shop floor. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Kence Anderson.
This week's guest is Fabio Violante (https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabioviolante), CEO of Arduino. Fabio and Natan explore the importance of open source technology in manufacturing and how the democratization of embedded systems development is reshaping the industry. Fabio also shares the history of Arduino, and how he led the charge to evolve their approach from focusing purely on makers and hobbyists, to supporting enterprise grade applications with a new line of hardware. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Fabio Violante.
This week's guest is Kevin Kidd (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-kidd-5ab572113/), Director of Software and Analytics at RFK Racing. While advanced manufacturing might not be the first thought that comes to mind when you hear the word NASCAR, Kevin sheds light on the complex processes and digital tools that go into building high performance race cars. He also explains how citizen development helped the team go from running on Excel to building the custom software they need, as well as the key role that data governance and advanced analytics play in putting a car that's ready to win out on the track every week. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Kevin Kidd.
This week's guest is Marc Nash (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcnash1/), SVP of Operations and R&D at Outset Medical. In an industry dominated by legacy players, Marc explains how Outset set out to redefine what is possible when it comes to patient health, and how they leveraged an equally disruptive approach to manufacturing to give them a competitive edge. He also explains how they are taking advantage of IoT to improve their products even after they have been shipped, the evolution of lean manufacturing in the digital age, and the value of composability in developing next-gen production systems. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Marc Nash.
This week, Natan Linder (https://www.linkedin.com/in/linder/), Co-Founder and CEO of Tulip (https://tulip.co/) sits down with Tulip CMO Madilynn Castillo (https://www.linkedin.com/in/madilynncastillo/) to reflect on the second annual Operations Calling conference and what it means for the future of frontline operations. Natan and Madi discuss what makes Operations Calling more than just another user conference, the importance of authenticity, and building a community around frontline operations. They also explain what it takes to build an operations-first ecosystem, how the industry is evolving, and how they're planning next year's Operations Calling. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Madilynn Castillo.
This week's guest is Daniele Iacovelli (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniele-iacovelli-8684a9b2/), VP, Global Head of Digital, Analytics (AI) & Operational Excellence at Roche. Although regulated industries like pharmaceutical manufacturing can be slow to digitally transform their manufacturing operations, Daniele lays out how changing trends in the industry have led Roche to architect a new digital production system, with a focus on a composable, future-proof architecture. He also lays out how rapid solution development enabled by new software platforms and a citizen developer approach is enabling people across the company to solve their own problems, while also laying the groundwork for rethinking the traditional software validation approach that dominates regulated industries. Plus, what the role of GenAI should be in a GxP environment, and more. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Daniele Iacovelli.
This week's guest is Rick Bullotta (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickbullotta/), longtime veteran of the industrial software space and co-founder of Lighthammer and Thingworx. Rick and Natan explore the history of MES solutions, how Frontline Operations Platforms are democratizing the development of industrial software, and what this means for the future architecture of the manufacturing tech stack. They also break down the hype vs. reality in industrial AI, and discuss which use cases continue to require a human-in-the-loop. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Rick Bullotta.
In this bonus episode, Elisabeth Reynolds—MIT Professor of the Practice, former White House policymaker, and now Strategic Advisor to Tulip—joins Natan Linder to discuss the building momentum around reindustrialization in the United States. Liz calls attention to the most important factors shaping the industrial landscape, and the need for a clear national strategy that can direct government coordination with manufacturers. Liz also explores the challenges in introducing software to the frontline workforce, ways manufacturers can address skill gaps, and the role of venture capital in fueling innovation. Rendustrialize Summit (https://www.axios.com/2024/07/01/us-industry-leadership-summit-detroit) Reindustrialize Manifesto (https://www.reindustrialize.com/resources/manifesto) SCSP Advanced Manufacturing Report (https://www.scsp.ai/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Advanced-Manufacturing-Action-Plan.pdf) Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Elisabeth Reynolds.
This week marks the final episode of Season 1 of Augmented Ops! Natan Linder and Erik Mirandette sit down to discuss their takeaways from the first season—while trying not to get derailed analogizing frontline operations to the Celtics Championship win. Natan and Erik highlight the advancements (and stumbles) in industrial AI, and the way that open, interoperable ecosystems have fundamentally changed the way manufacturing tech stacks are built. They also reflect the need to focus on the frontline worker, the power of democratizing advanced technology, and more. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/).
This week's guest is Jeff Kramer (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-kramer-a367906/), VP Technology & Digital Factory at Kason Industries (https://www.kasonind.com/). Jeff discusses why manufacturers struggle to develop a cohesive digital strategy, and lays out best practices around governance, data architecture, and bridging the IT/OT divide. He also explains why it's critical for organizations to empower their frontline personnel by using technology to enable a citizen developer approach. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Jeff Kramer.
This week's guest is Kai Yang (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaiyangtw/), VP of Product at LandingAI (https://landing.ai/). Kai discusses the need for a data-centric approach to AI, why vendors should build tools rather than solutions, and more, sharing lessons learned from his career in machine learning and software development. He also explains how new tools like visual prompting are democratizing computer vision and enabling anyone, regardless of skill level, to develop their own machine learning models. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). LandingAI is a Tulip Technology Ecosystem (https://tulip.co/partners/technology-ecosystem-partners/) Partner. Special Guest: Kai Yang.
This week's guest is Anna Shedletsky (https://www.linkedin.com/in/annakatrinashedletsky/), Co-Founder and CEO of Instrumental (https://instrumental.com/). Having started her career as an engineer at Apple, Anna shares lessons around quality management, which manufacturing KPIs actually matter, and how to take an idea from prototype to production. Plus, she lays out why organizations should think about manufacturing as a profit generator rather than a cost center, and why being able to demonstrate ROI is vital for engineers to advocate for the tech they need. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Instrumental is a Tulip Technology Ecosystem (https://tulip.co/partners/technology-ecosystem-partners/) Partner. Special Guest: Anna Shedletsky.
This week, Natan Linder (https://www.linkedin.com/in/linder/), Co-Founder and CEO of Tulip (https://tulip.co/) sits down with Madilynn Castillo (https://www.linkedin.com/in/madilynncastillo/), Head of Marketing for a recap of their experiences at this year's Hannover Messe — the world's largest industrial trade fair. They explore the lackluster state of AI in industrial software, the rise of composable software architectures, and how open technology ecosystems are becoming the norm throughout the industry. Plus, an overview of the latest developments from Tulip that debuted at the show. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Madilynn Castillo.
This week's guest is Matt Lowe (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwlowe/), Co-Founder and CEO of ZeroKey (https://zerokey.com/). Not only is he a contributor to major open source projects like Linux and Arduino, Matt is the inventor of Quantum RTLS, a system that uses ultrasound to achieve 3D position tracking of objects with an unmatched level of fidelity. He explains what makes ultrasound-based positioning systems ideal for manufacturing environments, how spatial intelligence offers new ways to solve problems on the shop floor, and how open architecture can eliminate the need for system integrators. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). ZeroKey is a Tulip Technology Ecosystem (https://tulip.co/partners/technology-ecosystem-partners/) Partner. Special Guest: Matt Lowe.
This week's guest is Dominik Obermaier (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dobermai/), Co-Founder and CTO of HiveMQ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/hivemq-gmbh/). With over 10 years of experience serving on the MQTT technical committee and helping organizations build their data foundations using HiveMQ's MQTT platform, Dominik shares his deep expertise on the technology. He explains what makes MQTT such an important communications protocol, why the emergence of the Unified Namespace matters for manufacturers, and debates the merits of on-prem vs. cloud solutions. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). HiveMQ is a Tulip Technology Ecosystem (https://tulip.co/partners/technology-ecosystem-partners/) Partner. Special Guest: Dominik Obermaier.
This week's guest is Jay Lee (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-lee-116ba59/), Director of the Industrial AI Center at the University of Maryland (https://www.linkedin.com/school/university-of-maryland/). Dr. Lee shares his experiences from the early days programming machines with punch cards, to eventually developing advanced machine learning applications for industry. He explains how AI and ML are reshaping manufacturing, the workforce, and global supply chains. Plus, he lays out his vision for how our education system needs to change in order to train the next generation of AI practitioners. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Jay Lee.
This week's guest is Alex Krüger (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-krueger/), Co-founder and CEO of United Manufacturing Hub (https://www.linkedin.com/company/united-manufacturing-hub/), or UMH. Alex shares his journey from working on integration projects in consulting fresh out of college, to founding UMH and building an open source alternative to the offerings from incumbent vendors. He breaks down the role of the open source software movement in manufacturing, how the Unified Namespace architecture compares to the traditional ISA-95 model, and how IT can best enable OT to solve problems. Plus, he shares his vision for how microservice-based MES solutions can disrupt the existing monolithic applications. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). UMH is a Tulip Technology Ecosystem (https://tulip.co/partners/technology-ecosystem-partners/) Partner. Special Guest: Alex Krüger.
This week's guest is Vatsal Shah (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vatsal12/), Founder and CEO of Litmus (https://www.linkedin.com/company/litmus-automation/). Vatsal discusses his journey from an automation engineer at Rockwell, to building a new industrial data platform from the ground up after becoming frustrated with the limitations of the offerings from established vendors. He discusses manufacturers' exodus from on-prem to cloud systems, the pros and cons of data protocols like MQTT and Sparkplug B, and why the Unified Namespace architecture is getting so much attention. Plus, he shares his vision for the future of edge computing and how an open ecosystem of interoperable tools is transforming the industry. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Litmus is a Tulip Technology Ecosystem (https://tulip.co/partners/technology-ecosystem-partners/) Partner. Special Guest: Vatsal Shah.
This week's guest is Dr. Lisa Graham (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisagraham2/), CEO of Seeq (https://www.linkedin.com/company/seeqcorporation/). Dr. Graham discusses her journey from process engineer, to using Seeq's platform as a customer, and now leading the company as CEO. Drawing on her extensive experience in operations, she discusses how advanced analytics, generative AI, and the emergence of an interoperable technology ecosystem are reshaping industries. Plus, she shares best practices for IT/OT collaboration, her vision for the future of historians, and how the democratization of data science is paving the way for a more efficient and sustainable future in operations and manufacturing. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Seeq is a Tulip Technology Ecosystem (https://tulip.co/partners/technology-ecosystem-partners/) Partner. Special Guest: Lisa Graham.
This week's guest is Jeff Winter (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreyrwinter/), Sr. Director of Industry Strategy for Manufacturing at Hitachi Solutions (https://www.linkedin.com/company/hitachi-solutions-america/). Jeff offers his insights into the history of the Industry 4.0 movement and how he expects it to evolve in the coming years. His discussion highlights the balance between AI and human ingenuity, the role of frontline workers in an increasingly automated manufacturing environment, and the untapped potential of manufacturing data. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Jeff Winter.
This week's guest is Joachim Hensch (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joachim-hensch-consulting), Founder of Joachim Hensch Consulting (https://www.joachimhensch.com/) and former Managing Director of the Hugo Boss factory in Izmir, Turkey. Hensch shares invaluable lessons learned about digital transformation through his over three decades of experience working in the apparel industry in roles from the shop floor all the way to management. His unique journey from tailor to digital transformation leader illustrates the realities of implementing Industry 4.0, challenges in traditional manufacturing, and the pressing need to empower workers with digital tools. Joachim discusses how manufacturers can balance artisanship with mass production by adopting new tools while retaining a deep appreciation of the frontline operators and their critical role in the industry. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Joachim Hensch.
This week's guest is Lior Susan (https://www.linkedin.com/in/liorsusan/), founder of Eclipse Ventures. With the digital transformation of critical industries like manufacturing now at the forefront of many nations' economic priorities, Lior discusses the role that venture capital can play in helping drive this change. He addresses the growing importance of integrating IT and OT in industrial settings, and how technology can be used to augment the global workforce. Plus, key insights on the future of system integration in a world of open, interoperable software ecosystems. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod/). Special Guest: Lior Susan.
This week's guest is Dr. Jörg Gnamm (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joerggnamm/), Senior Partner & Global Head of Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 Practice at Bain & Company (https://www.bain.com/). In order to successfully transform their business, Jörg calls on manufacturers to take a systemic approach to technology adoption by enabling interdisciplinary collaboration, and focusing on use cases that drive value for the business. He draws on his extensive experience with real-world implementation examples, sharing his lessons learned and best practices from successfully implementing the blueprint he describes in our conversation. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpod). Special Guest: Jörg Gnamm.
Our guest this week is GSK's Mark Buswell (https://www.linkedin.com/in/markbuswell), VP of Quality Tech. Mark draws on over two decades of experience in pharma manufacturing as we explore the challenges of quality control in the industry. Our discussion sheds light on the hurdles of adopting emerging technologies in regulated industries as Mark presents his vision of how to enable 'Quality by Design' with new tech and methodologies. He explains what the future of quality labs will look like, and what manufacturers need to do to prepare for this coming paradigm shift in the pharma industry. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/75424477). Special Guest: Mark Buswell.
Our guest this week is Microsoft's Erich Barnstedt (https://www.linkedin.com/in/erich-barnstedt-9a84685), Chief Architect Standards, Consortia & Industrial IoT, Azure Edge + Platform. Erich brings his perspective as we try to get to the bottom of why–despite overtures from some of the biggest vendors in the space–we still have not achieved true data interoperability in the manufacturing industry. We explore what really goes on behind the curtain at standards committees, and why it is so important for vendors to embrace an open technology ecosystem that puts interoperability at the forefront. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/75424477). Special Guest: Erich Barnstedt.
Our guest this week is Diego Tamburini (https://www.linkedin.com/in/diegotamburini/), Category Manager for Manufacturing for the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace. We explore what the modern manufacturing software landscape looks like from the consumer and vendor perspective, and take a deep dive into what software providers can do to enable an open, interoperable tech stack for manufacturers. We also highlight the importance of collecting data and putting the operator first as manufacturers look to digitally transform their businesses. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/75424477). Special Guest: Diego Tamburini.
Our guest this week is Antonio Padovano (https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoniopadovano/), Assistant Professor at the University of Calabria. In this conversation, we discuss the failures of practically implementing Industry 4.0 on the shop floor, and his vision for how we can address these with a new approach that respects both humans and technology. Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, shop floor operators, citizen developers, and anyone else that cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/), the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast (https://tulip.co/podcast) or by following the show on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/75424477). Special Guest: Antonio Padovano.
In this special episode, Trond introduces Natan Linder, CEO of Tulip and co-author of Augmented Lean, as the new host of Augmented Season 4. Trond and Natan review four great interviews from 2022, and Natan previews what's to come in 2023–with new episodes that go beyond interviews to include brainstorms, debates, and the occasional stream of consciousness. Augmented Episode 74: DMG MORI's Digital Lean Journey (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/74) Augmented Episode 78: Life Science Manufacturing Systems (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/78) Augmented Episode 79: The Future Factory (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/79) Augmented Episode 84: The Evolution of Lean (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/84)
Efe Erdem, Executive Director of the MEXT Technology Center takes us on a journey through Turkey's manufacturing landscape and its pivotal role in advancing digitalization across the MENA region. We delve into the motivation behind establishing the MEXT Technology Center, its unique approach in providing end-to-end services to manufacturers, and the impact of their initiatives on digital transformation in various sectors, including automotive, steel, and textiles. Efe shares valuable insights on the importance of upskilling the workforce to drive innovation on the shop floor, and how technology can augment human capabilities leading to increased efficiency and productivity. As the region embraces sustainability, we discuss how digitalization becomes a critical enabler for achieving decarbonization goals and fostering growth in an increasingly competitive global market. If you like this show, subscribe at AugmentedPodcast.co (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/). If you found this episode interesting, you might also like Episode 104: A Scandinavian Perspective on Industrial Operator Independence (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/104) with Johan Stahre, or Episode 40: Israel Meets New England on Industry 4.0 (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/40). Augmented is a podcast for industry leaders, process engineers, and shop floor operators, hosted by futurist Trond Arne Undheim (https://trondundheim.com/) and presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/). Follow the podcast on Twitter (https://twitter.com/AugmentedPod) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/75424477/). Special Guest: Efe Erdem.
Augmented reveals the stories behind the new era of industrial operations, where technology will restore the agility of frontline workers. The topic is Industrial Design. Our guest is Kimberly Andersson, Head Of Design at Tulip Interfaces. The conversation between Trond and Kimberly revolves around the topic of design, particularly in the context of industrial software and digital tools for manufacturing processes. Kimberly shares her insights on the power of design, the tension between user-centric design and industrial constraints, and the importance of understanding user needs to create better solutions. She provides examples of how digital tools can simplify and improve processes in manufacturing, such as automating data recording and graphing tasks. She also touches on the challenges and opportunities in enterprise software UX and the potential of AI-generated design tools. The Augmented podcast is created in association with Tulip, connected frontline operations platform that connects the people, machines, devices, and the systems used in a production or logistics process in a physical location. Tulip is democratizing technology and empowering those closest to operations to solve problems. Tulip is also hiring. You can find Tulip at tulip.co (https://tulip.co/). Augmented is a podcast for industry leaders, process engineers, and shop floor operators, hosted by futurist Trond Arne Undheim (https://trondundheim.com/) and presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/). Follow the podcast on Twitter (https://twitter.com/AugmentedPod) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/75424477/). Special Guest: Kimberly Andersson.
Augmented reveals the stories behind the new era of industrial operations, where technology will restore the agility of frontline workers. The topic is: Digital Manufacturing in the Cloud. Our guest is Jon Hirschtick, Head of SaaS, Onshape and Atlas Platform, PTC.In this conversation, we talk about the story of SolidWorks, using agile methods, listening to the market, charting the evolution of CAD into SaaS, and its emerging and future iterations in the open source cloud and beyond After listening to this episode, check out PTC, Solidworks, as well as Jon Hirschtick's social media profiles:PTC (@ptc): https://www.ptc.com/enSolidworks (@solidworks): https://www.solidworks.com/ Jon Hirschtick (@jhirschtick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonhirschtick/Trond's takeaway: Digital manufacturing is moving to the cloud and that means a whole lot more than office software moving to the cloud. In fact, establishing a real-time digital thread, through next generation low-code and no-code systems, will reshape industry. The notion of factory production, distributed teams, product development, will all evolve significantly, and will enable personalization across industry and across any and eventually all of manufactured goods. The ramifications will be huge, but they won't automatically happen tomorrow, and the benefits will spread unevenly depending on who--be it corporations, nations, startups, or small- and medium enterprises--grabs the gauntlet first.Thanks for listening. If you liked the show, subscribe at Augmentedpodcast.co or in your preferred podcast player, and rate us with five stars. If you liked this episode, you might also like episode 43, Digitized Supply Chain, episode 24, Emerging Interfaces for Human Augmentation, or episode 21, The Future of Digital in Manufacturing. Augmented is a podcast for industry leaders, process engineers, and shop floor operators, hosted by futurist Trond Arne Undheim (https://trondundheim.com/) and presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/). Follow the podcast on Twitter (https://twitter.com/AugmentedPod) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/75424477/). Special Guest: Jon Hirschtick.
In episode 117 of the podcast, the topic is manufacturing. Our guest is Jessica Yen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-yen-49753019/), Head of Customer Success at Tulip (https://tulip.co/). In this conversation, we talk about how it's interesting to see that changes are happening in manufacturing but that these changes aren't fast. It's a moving target, manufacturing, but certainly, complexity is there. Augmented is a podcast for industrial leaders, process engineers and shop floor operators, hosted by futurist Trond Arne Undheim (@trondau), presented by Tulip (@tulipinterfaces), the frontline operations platform. The Augmented podcast is created in association with Tulip, connected frontline operations platform that connects the people, machines, devices, and the systems used in a production or logistics process in a physical location. Tulip is democratizing technology and empowering those closest to operations to solve problems. Tulip is also hiring. You can find Tulip at Tulip.co. Please share this show with colleagues who care about where industry and especially industrial tech is heading. To find us on social media is easy, we are Augmented Pod on LinkedIn and Twitter, and Augmented Podcast on Facebook and YouTube:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/AugmentedPodcast/Twitter: https://twitter.com/AugmentedPodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Y1gz66LxYvjJAMnN_f6PQ Special Guest: Jessica Yen.
In episode 116 of the podcast, the topic is: The Market of Marketplaces. Our guest is Jason Ray (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasontray/), Co-Founder and CEO of Paperless Parts (https://www.paperlessparts.com/). In this conversation, we talk about the importance of implementing a growth mindset in manufacturing, procurement, and industrial supply chains. Augmented is a podcast for industrial leaders, process engineers and shop floor operators, hosted by futurist Trond Arne Undheim (@trondau), presented by Tulip (@tulipinterfaces), the frontline operations platform. The Augmented podcast is created in association with Tulip, connected frontline operations platform that connects the people, machines, devices, and the systems used in a production or logistics process in a physical location. Tulip is democratizing technology and empowering those closest to operations to solve problems. Tulip is also hiring. You can find Tulip at Tulip.co. Please share this show with colleagues who care about where industry and especially industrial tech is heading. To find us on social media is easy, we are Augmented Pod on LinkedIn and Twitter, and Augmented Podcast on Facebook and YouTube:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/AugmentedPodcast/Twitter: https://twitter.com/AugmentedPodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Y1gz66LxYvjJAMnN_f6PQ Special Guest: Jason Ray.
In episode 66 of the podcast, the topic is: Bridging the Physical-Digital Divide in Industrial Tech. Our guest is Rony Kubat (@kubat), CTO and co-founder, TulipIn this conversation, we talk about the complexity of the shop floor and programming a physical-digital environment. What does Digital Lean mean to you? What is augmentation? What's next in industrial tech?Augmented is a podcast for industrial leaders, process engineers and shop floor operators, hosted by futurist Trond Arne Undheim (@trondau), presented by Tulip (@tulipinterfaces), the frontline operations platform.Trond's takeaway: The physical-digital environment is no joke. When you speak with a real technologist who not only has imagined what the future would look like, but who is involved in building it, integrating software and hardware on the factory floor, you realize how difficult it will be to transform industrial work. It is not just about industrial tech, it is about people. It is not just about neat software, or fancy hardware. It all has to work together. And, more importantly, it has to fit into the overall context of what people are already doing.Thanks for listening. If you liked the show, subscribe at Augmentedpodcast.co or in your preferred podcast player, and rate us with five stars. If you liked this episode, you might also like episode 44, No-code for IoT in the Cloud, episode 47, Industrial Machine Learning or episode 29, The Automated Microfactory. The Augmented podcast is created in association with Tulip, connected frontline operations platform that connects the people, machines, devices, and the systems used in a production or logistics process in a physical location. Tulip is democratizing technology and empowering those closest to operations to solve problems. Tulip is also hiring. You can find Tulip at Tulip.co. Please share this show with colleagues who care about where industry and especially industrial tech is heading. To find us on social media is easy, we are Augmented Pod on LinkedIn and Twitter, and Augmented Podcast on Facebook and YouTube:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/augmentedpodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/AugmentedPodcast/Twitter: https://twitter.com/AugmentedPodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Y1gz66LxYvjJAMnN_f6PQAugmented--industrial conversations that matter. See you next time. Special Guest: Rony Kubat.
Augmented reveals the stories behind the new era of industrial operations, where technology will restore the agility of frontline workers. Scott Phillips, founder of i4Score, joins us in this episode for a deep-dive conversation about the journey towards a data-driven culture. We discuss the three big challenges small- to medium-sized manufacturers face when trying to adopt new technology; the core principles of Industry 4.0; and how to use technology to automate, autonomize, and augment. If you like this show, subscribe at AugmentedPodcast.co (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/). If you liked this episode, you might also like Episode 93: Industry 4.0 Tools (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/93) with Carl B. March, or Episode 109: Augmenting Workers With Wearables (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/109) with Andrew Chrostowski. Augmented is a podcast for industry leaders, process engineers, and shop floor operators, hosted by futurist Trond Arne Undheim (https://trondundheim.com/) and presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/). Follow the podcast on Twitter (https://twitter.com/AugmentedPod) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/75424477/). Trond's Takeaway: Industry 4.0 is indeed a journey, and there is a lot to potentially care about, a lot of places to start, and a lot of options that won't always lead firms to scale in a healthy manner. As long as the roadmap is owned by the organization itself, at least, the mistakes, which undoubtedly will be made, will be real lessons, not externally imposed. First among the challenges is to avoid transforming only to discover that you are yet again locked into solutions that you cannot fully make use of. Special Guest: Scott Phillips.
Augmented reveals the stories behind the new era of industrial operations, where technology will restore the agility of frontline workers. Jim Huntzinger, President of Lean Frontiers, joins us in this episode for a deep dive into the lean business model and all things lean accounting. We explore value stream versus product costing, the importance of lean coaching, the principles of Toyota Kata, and how these strategies can drive processes improvement and product development simultaneously. Throughout the conversation, we examine the value of transforming traditional business practices and the potential impact on organizational decision-making and growth. If you like this show, subscribe at AugmentedPodcast.co (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/). If you liked this episode, you might also like Episode 108: Lean Operations (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/108) with John Carrier, or Episode 84: The Evolution of Lean (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/84) with Torbjørn Netland. Augmented is a podcast for industry leaders, process engineers, and shop floor operators, hosted by futurist Trond Arne Undheim (https://trondundheim.com/) and presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/). Follow the podcast on Twitter (https://twitter.com/AugmentedPod) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/75424477/). Trond's Takeaway: The lean business model is attractive to many manufacturing firms and still elusive to some of them, despite many examples of the principles in action popping up constantly. The business community should still spend more time on the interface between tech, logistics, and IT, and how all of that might interface with lean accounting. Strikingly, what we might think of as lean companies don't necessarily use lean practices across their business. Special Guest: Jim Huntzinger.
Augmented reveals the stories behind the new era of industrial operations, where technology will restore the agility of frontline workers. In this episode, we're speaking with Anna Waldman-Brown, PhD candidate in political economy and researcher at MIT. Our discussion dives deep into how manufacturers are automating welding processes, the role humans and robots will play in the future of the industry, and what these trends mean for small- and medium-sized enterprises in particular. We also explore the importance of collaboration between greener, tech-savvy automation engineers and the experienced shop floor operators whose skills and expertise are necessary to drive the production process. If you like this show, subscribe at AugmentedPodcast.co (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/). If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like Episode 92: Emerging Interfaces for Human Augmentation (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/92) with Pattie Maes, or Episode 7: Work of the Future (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/7) with Elisabeth Reynolds. Augmented is a podcast for industry leaders, process engineers, and shop floor operators, hosted by futurist Trond Arne Undheim (https://trondundheim.com/) and presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/). Follow the podcast on Twitter (https://twitter.com/AugmentedPod) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/75424477/). Special Guest: Anna Waldman-Brown.
Augmented reveals the stories behind the new era of industrial operations, where technology will restore the agility of frontline workers. In this episode of the podcast, the topic is Operator 4.0. Our guest is David Romero, Professor of Advanced Manufacturing at Tecnológico de Monterrey University in Mexico (https://tec.mx). In this conversation, we talk about the emergence of a smart and skilled operator who is helped by cognitive and physical augmentation, how this trend emerged, and how it will shape the future where we need more resilience. If you like this show, subscribe at augmentedpodcast.co (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/). If you liked this episode, you might also like Episode 104: A Scandinavian Perspective on Industrial Operator Independence with Johan Stahre (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/104). Augmented is a podcast for industry leaders, process engineers, and shop floor operators, hosted by futurist Trond Arne Undheim (https://trondundheim.com/) and presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/). Follow the podcast on Twitter (https://twitter.com/AugmentedPod) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/75424477/). Trond's Takeaway: The operator is again at the center of the industrial process. This is a curious thing that seems to happen a few years after every major technological breakthrough or implementation once we realize how adaptable and capable a human workforce can be. That does not mean that technology is irrelevant but only that training humans to know every step of the work process is important in order to capture value by addressing and fixing errors and suggesting improvements. Special Guest: David Romero.
Augmented reveals the stories behind the new era of industrial operations, where technology will restore the agility of frontline workers. In this episode of the podcast, the topic is "Executing on Manufacturing Technology" and our guest is Jane Arnold, board member at Aperio.ai (https://aperio.ai/about/) and former VP of Manufacturing Technology at Stanley Black & Decker (https://www.stanleyblackanddecker.com/). In this conversation, we talk about advanced manufacturing technology, the importance of material flow, transparency, throughput, cost cutting, and captivating users with digital tools. If you like this show, subscribe at augmentedpodcast.co (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/). If you liked this episode, you might also like Episode 100: Innovating Across the Manufacturing Supply Chain (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/100). Augmented is a podcast for industry leaders, process engineers, and shop floor operators, hosted by futurist Trond Arne Undheim (https://trondundheim.com/) and presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/). Follow the podcast on Twitter (https://twitter.com/AugmentedPod) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/75424477/). Trond's Takeaway: Execution is everything in manufacturing. You can have any technology you want, but it's only going to be as good as the execution, both among executives and among managers all along the supply chain and all across the factory. Special Guest: Jane Arnold.
Augmented reveals the stories behind the new era of industrial operations, where technology will restore the agility of frontline workers. In this episode of the podcast, the topic is "Augmenting Workers With Wearables." And our guest is Andrew Chrostowski, Chairman and CEO of RealWear (https://www.realwear.com/). In this conversation, we talk about the brief history of industrial wearables, the state of play, the functionality, current approaches and deployments, use cases, the timelines, and the future. If you like this show, subscribe at augmentedpodcast.co (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/). If you liked this episode, you might also like Episode 92: Emerging Interfaces for Human Augmentation (https://www.augmentedpodcast.co/92). Augmented is a podcast for industry leaders, process engineers, and shop floor operators, hosted by futurist Trond Arne Undheim (https://trondundheim.com/) and presented by Tulip (https://tulip.co/). Follow the podcast on Twitter (https://twitter.com/AugmentedPod) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/75424477/). Trond's Takeaway: Industrial wearables have come a long way. There is a big need for assisted reality in many workforce scenarios across industry. There are now companies taking good products to market that are rugged enough, simple enough, and advanced enough to make work simpler for industrial workers. On the other hand, we are far away from the kind of untethered multiverse that many imagine in the future, one step at a time. Transcript: TROND: Welcome to another episode of the Augmented Podcast. Augmented reveals the stories behind the new era of industrial operations where technology will restore the agility of frontline workers. In this episode of the podcast, the topic is Augmenting Workers With Wearables. And our guest is Andrew Chrostowski, Chairman and CEO of RealWear. In this conversation, we talk about the brief history of industrial wearables, the state of play, the functionality, current approaches and deployments, use cases, the timelines, and the future. Augmented is a podcast for industrial leaders, for process engineers, and for shop floor operators hosted by futurist Trond Arne Undheim and presented by Tulip. Andrew, welcome to the show. How are you? ANDREW: Hi, Trond. Great to be here. I'm doing great. TROND: You know, you are a poster child entrepreneur engineer, Oregon State, University of Southern California. You are actually an expert on the future of work. There are so many people that say they talk about the future of work. You are implementing and, selling, and evangelizing a true future of work product, not just a story. We're going to be talking about augmented, assisted all kinds of reality and collaboration, Andrew, because that's, I guess, what it's all about. And you lead the industrial wearable company RealWear. But first, I want to get to the fact that you're a certified firefighter. Now, how does that fit into this? ANDREW: That's really a great question. And one of the things that's been passionate for me from the beginning is being close to the customer. It was true when I was an Air Force officer designing for systems that would support our warfighters and putting myself in their situations in life and death. Certainly, I think about it in terms of customers, and we were dealing with other lines of business and trying to understand the customers' perspective, and especially the frontline workers that create those products. And when I took over the Scott Safety business when I was part of Tyco, their particular market was firefighters. They were the leading provider of air tanks, cylinders, respirators, what we call SCBAs, self-contained breathing apparatus for firefighters. Now, I know a lot of things about a lot of areas of technology. But I didn't know anything about firefighting. And so when I took over that business, the first thing I did was go to Texas A&M and actually get trained and certified as an interior firefighter. So I actually put on all the bunker gear, timed donning just like you do when you're in the fire station, fought real fires that were built, and to understand really the challenges they faced. And I came out of that training really having a greater appreciation for just how challenging that work is. And I know it's shocking to your listeners, but everything we ever see on TV and movies about firefighting is wrong. Basically, firefighting, besides being terrifying, and difficult, and dangerous, is basically blind. You're in the smoke. You're in the dark. And my background in the Air Force thermal imaging systems and multispectral systems came back to me. And I said, "You know what we need to do is give predator vision to firefighters and give them the chance to see the unseen in the dark." And so, coming out of that training, I initiated an in-mass thermal imaging system for firefighters that went to the market about 14 months later at Scott site. TROND: Wow, that's some real background there. I'd like to start with that story because it reminds me that what we're about to talk about here, you know, wearables, it's not a joke. These are, you know, in industrial environments, these are not optional technologies once they really, really start working. And you can sort of say that they're first-line technologies. They better work every time. So this is not a case where you could kind of, well, you know, let's install another version and restart and whatnot. These are eventually going to be hopefully systems that the modern industrial worker really starts to trust to perform their job efficiently. Before we get into the nitty-gritty of all of the different things that RealWear is trying to do, I wanted to just ask you a basic question, what is assisted reality? It's a curious phrase. It's like, why does reality need assistance? [laughs] You know, where does that even come from? ANDREW: You can deny reality, but you can't deny the effects of denying reality. When we talk about assisted reality, it's a point on the spectrum what we call XR, the extended reality. It starts with reality and ends when that virtual reality, the fully immersive digital environment that we experience and what we talk about a lot in the metaverse. Then coming from reality forward, you have assisted reality, which is a reality-first, digital-second environment, which is what we focus on. It is the idea that this is the technology available now that allows a worker to be productive and work safely in a real-world environment. When you get into augmented reality, which is something that we think of when we think of products like HoloLens and other similar types of products, that's where this digital environment begins to overlay the actual environment. It imposes a cognitive load on the brain so that you're now having to focus on things that aren't really there while there are things that are really around you that could hurt you. This is great when you're in a safe environment, in a classroom, in a design area, when you're collaborating in the office to be able to immerse yourselves in these three-dimensional digital objects. It's much different when you're walking on the deck of an oil rig or you're potentially working around a cobot that can hurt you when your attention is distracted. And then we have sort of that virtual reality game that we started with in the metaverse where people are now kind of transposing themselves into a fully digital atmosphere. We at RealWear have focused on making a difference for the future of work and focusing on those 2 billion frontline workers who could work more safely and more productively if they were connected. And it makes perfect sense to us. If we learned anything from the COVID lockdowns, we learned that this idea of working from anywhere, the idea of the office worker working from home, working from the coffee shop, all of this now has become just a given. We know that we need these digital tools to collaborate remotely. What we only have begun to just crack the code on is that there are, again, 2 billion people working with their hands on the front line who could work more productively and more safely if they were connected workers, if they had access to information, if they had access to collaborating in a hands-free way with their counterparts across the world. And so RealWear, our focus is this mission of engaging, empowering, and elevating the performance of those frontline workers by giving them an assisted reality solution that is extremely low friction and easy to use. TROND: I like the distinction there. Even though this podcast is called augmented, I like the distinction between AR and assisted reality. Because there's really, I guess, you can see it more clearly in the consumer space where it sounds so fascinating to enter these virtual worlds. But in industry, the virtual is really subservient and needs to be subservient to the very reality. So I guess assisting reality is the point here. It's not the endpoint that is necessarily the virtual. You're using the technologies, if I understand it, to strengthen the ability to survive and be very, very efficient in reality as opposed to entering some sort of virtual space where you are simulating more. You're talking about critical applications in the physical industrial reality, so that's now clear to me. Having said that, this is not easy to do, is it, Andrew? ANDREW: No. I mean, there's a lot that comes into this idea of making technology that's human-centric. And all the things you were just talking about really bring us back to this idea that this kind of assisted reality solution is about helping the human being at that nexus of control operate more safely and effectively in a variety of environmental conditions. It is really important that we think about the technology serving the person and not so much technology that is imposing itself on people, which is oftentimes what we see as we try to roll out different kinds of technical solutions. The folks who are doing work with their hands who are daily exposing themselves to risk have a very low tolerance for things that waste their time, are difficult to use, or distract them from reality. And so all of those things are factors we took into account as we developed this first head-mounted tablet computer that now is in the market as the Navigator 500. TROND: Andrew, can you tell me a little bit about the history and evolution of these kinds of technologies? Because there is so much hype out there. And you did a pristine job as to making these concepts fairly distinct. But how long has there even been an industrial product? I guess a lot of us remember the first Google Glass, but partly what we remember is the hype in the consumer market, which then kind of fell flat. And then they reemerged, I guess, as sort of a light competitor to you guys and then has since somewhat disappeared. But, anyway, there are a lot of attempts in the near history of technology to do this kind of thing. I mean, it corresponds pretty neatly to various sci-fi paradigms as well. But what are the real prototypes that go into the inspiration for the technology as you have it today? ANDREW: Well, I'm glad you mentioned science fiction because really the way I would start this, otherwise, is, say, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, we had Star Wars. And if you think back to that show, science fiction has been part of how people work in modeling, how people work for decades and more, from Jules Verne all the way through to Star Trek and the like. And so when you think about these technologies, you go back to processes and technologies that support humans collaborating. And back in Star Wars, we had a character called Boba Fett who famously has, and now you see it in the Mandalorian, a little device that comes down from his helmet in front of his eyes and acts as a rangefinder and computer screen. Actually, one of the founding engineers that were part of the design of the first RealWear device came out of designing Boba Fett's helmet. And so there is really a connection there about how people have imagined people work and how people actually work. And the actual part really started with Dr. Chris Parkinson and spending over ten years working on what is the right ergonomics. What's the right way to shift the balance, the weight, the size, and manner of the display? How do you control the windows and amount of information displayed? And how do you suppress the outside noise so that you can have a voice control system that makes it truly hands-free? So it began with this idea of all great things start with a spark of imagination. And then bringing that to a very practical point of view of solving the problem of being able to give someone information and collaboration tools hands-free in an environment where they can work safely but connect to all the value and information that's out there that we enjoy every day working as office knowledge workers with the internet. TROND: Andrew, what are some of the technical challenges you had to overcome? I can imagine; first, you have to design something that is probably bulkier than you wanted, and then eventually reducing its size is one thing. But I can imagine the algorithms apply to, I mean, there's imaging here, and there's a bunch of design techniques to make this work. And then you said ruggedized, right? I mean, this stuff cannot break. ANDREW: That's right. TROND: What are the kinds of things that went into and is going into your next-generation products? ANDREW: Well, I think that's a great question. And, of course, as new products evolve and we build on the learnings we've had from having one of the largest install base of wearable computers in the world, we can sit there and say, look, it starts with ruggedization. Because, frankly, these frontline workers, when they're wearing these devices on their hard hat, at the end of the day, that hard hat gets tossed into the back of the truck. It gets tossed in the van. It gets dropped on the ground, or in the mud, or out in the rain. So we knew right away that we had to build a device that was able to hold up to that, things that a lot of similar kinds of products that are out there just can't hold up to. So we started with this idea that it had to be extremely rugged. It had to be lightweight enough to wear all day. And our first version did that very well. The Navigator 500 has come now just as rugged but now 30% lighter. So we've learned how to make that ruggedness, even in a lighter form factor. You have to trade-off on how you see that display in bright sunlight, in dim settings. You have to think about how you operate in a noisy environment. So you can imagine if you're trying to use a voice-driven assistant, whether it's on your phone or a little microphone device in your home, you use a wake-up word, and then you have to try to talk clearly. And if you don't talk clearly, you end up having it not do what you want. That's very frustrating for a frontline worker, and it's just downright distracting and dangerous at times. So we chose to have a system and voice control that does not require a wake-up word. It's always listening. And it listens in context to what's on the screen. Literally, what we say is you say what you see. And that's about all the training you need to learn how to use the Navigator 500 effectively. And because it's so easy and intuitive, people get used to it quickly. And they go gravitate towards how it's making their work easier to get to, how it's easy to launch a collaborative meeting in any number of key applications, whether it's Microsoft Teams, Cisco, Webex on demand, whether it's Zoom, whether it's TeamViewer, any number of other partners that we have in terms of the types of collaborations. TROND: Well, I want to get into some of the use cases in a second, but just briefly, so you were founded as a company in 2016. And you're now, I guess, 140-some employees. I mean, it's fairly recent. This is not something that you've been doing since the '70s here. But on the other hand, this is also very challenging. It's not like you produce something, and all of industry immediately buys into it. So I just wanted to address that, that this particular market, even though it's always been there as this potential, there doesn't seem to have been kind of a killer application like there is in some other hardware markets. And maybe you're thinking you will be one. But I just wanted you to address this issue. Recently, the IBC the analysts came out with this prediction that they're forecasting a decline actually year over year in units sold. And they're also saying a lot of new vendors are going to come into this market, but the market is not very mature right now. What do you say to that kind of an argument? ANDREW: There's a lot to unpack there, so forgive me if I miss some of the things you brought up there. But I'd start really with RealWear and how we develop this. The Navigator 500, the product we have on the market today, is highly modular, lightweight, does all these types of things, and that's really the eighth generation. Even though we only have been around since 2016, the thinking behind this form factor has gone on for eight generations. So we've got a lot more maturity than some of the other folks who might be thinking about entering this market. We've also focused entirely from the beginning on that industrial frontline worker. It's a niche of over 2 billion people but very different from the consumer aspect and what people have gotten used to in terms of dealing with a piece of glass that they might carry in their pocket all day long. We think that A, we've kind of created this assisted reality space. We've won in so many of these industrial cases because of the way we make work safer and more productive. We've now passed applications where we've had installations over 3,500 units with a single use. We've got, in multiple cases, over 1,000 deployments. We've got 75-80 deployments of over 100 units. So we really have broken through. And what we see is whenever we talk about the assisted reality market, or we can talk more broadly, we usually only see data on augmented reality. They put all these smart glasses in sort of a category. And we're really only a portion of what they count as smart glasses. So when they start saying there's downward pressure on that market or it's not growing as fast, it goes back to something I just read in a book about builders in terms of how innovation happens. And the author described augmented reality as a solution looking for a problem. We came at it with a particular problem we were solving, and that's I think the big difference between us and a lot of how people have come into this space. We knew exactly the problem we're trying to solve. We knew that we wanted to make the human the central part of that control Nexus. And we knew that we wanted to be in a space where others would find it difficult to succeed. And so, as we've been successful here and as we continue to grow and expand these deployments and getting into larger and larger deployments, we know that others will kind of begin to look into this space and try to compete. But most of them are bridging over from that consumer side where a lot of the fundamental design trade-offs they've made do not well-support all shift use in a ruggedized environment and with the ease of use that we've designed into our products. TROND: Andrew, that makes a lot of sense to me. MID-ROLL AD: In the new book from Wiley, Augmented Lean: A Human-Centric Framework for Managing Frontline Operations, serial startup founder Dr. Natan Linder and futurist podcaster Dr. Trond Arne Undheim deliver an urgent and incisive exploration of when, how, and why to augment your workforce with technology, and how to do it in a way that scales, maintains innovation, and allows the organization to thrive. The key thing is to prioritize humans over machines. Here's what Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, says about the book: "Augmented Lean is an important puzzle piece in the fourth industrial revolution." Find out more on www.augmentedlean.com, and pick up the book in a bookstore near you. TROND: Let's talk about some of these bigger deployments. So I don't know if you can mention names, but the biggest one, I'm assuming, is in the automotive industry because they are at the forefront of a lot of automation technology. So I'm just going to make that assumption. Tell me a little bit about that deployment. What is it all about? What are they using it for? What can you tell me about what they're using it for? ANDREW: Thank you, Trond. And I'm super excited about our success in the automotive sector, not only just because of what it represents but because, as an industry, it's so central to economies across the globe. And when we think about the transformation of that industry going to electrification, that change creates opportunity for us as well. So today, with our partner TeamViewer we're in over 3,500 dealerships. Virtually every dealership in America now has a RealWear product in it. For those technicians, when they're dealing with a particularly tough problem, they're able to put on our device as simple as what I'm doing here, just putting on their Navigator, their HMT-1. And they can call and connect with a technical assistance center in Detroit and have a first-person conversation with an expert who can help walk them through that repair, whether it's pushing diagrams to them to, illustrating over the video that they're getting but helping them solve that problem faster. And why is this so significant? Well, because from the customer point of view, you're happy that your problem is being solved quicker. You've got your car back. The dealer is happy because now they've been able to invoice the customer or invoice for it in this particular case to get their warranty repair dollars back. And Ford is happy because now they've got a happy customer, and they've got a better reputation and user experience. So it's a very positively reinforced system. And so when you think about that application alone of just being able to solve problems of existing cars, now think about the introduction of all of these electric vehicles to dealers, not only with Ford but anybody else you can think of is moving into electrification. There are a lot of technicians who know how to work on a gasoline engine, but very few who maybe know how to really solve those electricals. So this is a way that these dealers can bridge the skills gap that exists between what they have and what they need to be able to do in the near future. And that skills gap, by the way, is recognized not just in the automotive industry, but you and I experience it every day when we deal with restaurant industry, service industries, trucking. You think about any kind of skilled labor situation; we know demographically we've got a big gap. And that's going to be persistent for decades. And so a tool, a knowledge transfer platform that lets people move up that learning curve more rapidly to do more meaningful work, to be more self-actualized as they do that not only helps people but it helps industry serve their customers. And so we see ourselves really at the forefront of transforming work as we know it. TROND: I'm so glad you went to the skills, and it's so exciting that that's the main application right now because I think there's a lot of discussion, obviously, in the industry across sectors about the skills gap; they say, right? That the gap...we have to train people, or they have to go to school. They have to learn. It's an endless complexity. But, I mean, you're sort of saying the opposite. You're sort of saying cancel the training, put the headset on. Some of these things, very advanced training, very advanced advice, real-time support, can happen without going aside, looking at a computer, calling someone up, talking to you, you know, see you next week with your car. And then, meanwhile, what you're doing is scratching your head for a while, trying to figure out what's wrong. But you're saying this creates a much more dynamic scenario both for delivering the service and actually for the human worker who's trying to deliver some sort of service here and is plugged into an information ecosystem. I'm just wondering, is that a very, very typical use case? And do you foresee that that is the use case for assisted reality? Or are there wildly different use cases just depending on, I mean, pick another industry. I was just imagining the medical industry, famously remote surgery, or whatever it is. Some sort of assistance during surgery is obviously the big use case. I could imagine that there's something to be done here also with RealWear. ANDREW: Yeah, I mean, this is such an exciting area and topic to talk about, education, how people are educated, how that education plays to their employment and their employability, and how they add value and have careers. And we all have talked about whether university work is preparing people for the kinds of careers there are today or whether or not we need to be considering other kinds of applications, going direct to coding or whatever else. So when you talk about frontline workers, it's absolutely a matter of specific knowledge. It's not just general knowledge that matters. It's very specific things that can happen. And so by connecting people to experts, you do two things: you get the job done right away, but you also mature that worker because they learn from those experiences. And they can use our device to actually, while they're doing the work, film it. It can be curated and then used as training videos for the next generation of work that goes with it. So I think that alone is really exciting. There are so many use cases, though, beyond this, remote experts see what I see that we've been talking about. That's really...I'd say the predominant deployment today that people think about is how do I collaborate remotely on the front line? And that's super valuable. But what becomes even more interesting is when that device becomes a solution for how you do your daily work. As an example, if you're a heavy engine manufacturer and you have an end-of-line inspection, and that inspector is using a clipboard and a checklist to look at how the engine is functioning, imagine replacing that. For one of our particular customers, that takes about 30 minutes. When they implemented workflow using hands-free Navigator, they were able to reduce that time to about 12 minutes because now the person is not wasting time going back and forth to a clipboard, or to a table, or writing things down. They're absolutely hands-free, immersed in the work, being presented the next inspection point in their display, being able to photograph it, work through it, look at a comparison, document it. And the important thing is not just that they're doing it faster; they're finding three times as many defects because they're not distracted. We know there's no such thing as actually dual processing as human beings. If we think that we can listen to a Zoom call and do emails, we're doing neither very well. We know that we're just quickly switching. And that's the same thing that a lot of frontline workers experience. When you make it immersive and hands-free with workflow, now you begin to expand the value that this technology begins to support so much greater. As we move along, the implementations and the deployments are going to move from sort of this collaboration centric to workflow centric to then being able to be with our partner, IBM. IBM has actually created something they call Inspector Wearable, where they're giving a superpower inspection to an operator who might be standing at the end of an assembly line watching a car roll by. It stops in front of them. The camera knows, because of machine learning with Watson up in the cloud, that, hey, this is what a good wheel should look like and immediately highlights the operator with a telestration that's the wrong nut. There's a scratch on this rim or whatever defect we might be talking about. So then you start actually using these technologies that are inherent with the system to be able to augment the capabilities of these workers. And that starts to get really exciting. I'll add one of the points to that is in Q4, we're going to be introducing a thermal imaging camera that can easily be just snapped on on the part of our modular solution for Navigator to be able to then snap on a thermal imaging camera and give that person predator vision to be able to see if they're walking around their plant. They can see that an electrical panel is overheating or that a motor is hot, or they can use it in any of the hundreds of thermography industrial programs that people use today. So I think part of that transition goes from just being collaboration to how we work and do workflows to actually augmenting the capabilities of the folks who are wearing these wearable computers. TROND: Yeah, and that's so interesting. And, I guess, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's where it ties into not only IBM but a bunch of your other software partners too where Tulip being one of them, where now that you're providing a device, it actually is the end client that can put that device to use in their own scenarios. And they can build, I guess, apps around it and find their own use cases that may not be the ones that are super apparent to any of those who deliver it, whether it is you delivering the hardware, IBM, you know, delivering perhaps the machine learning capabilities or some other knowledge, or it is Tulip delivering kind of a frontline software platform that's adaptable. It is actually the end client that sits there and knows exactly how they want to explore it, and then in a second iteration, change that around. Or am I getting this ecosystem wrong here? ANDREW: No, I think you're onto something there very powerful, Trond. And there are three specific dots we have to connect when we think about a sustainable solution that can be deployed broad-spread across an industrial base, and the first one is the device. The device has to be right. It has to work for the user. It has to meet the requirements of the environmental conditions they're operating in. And so the device is critical. And that's really where RealWear started our journey with that focus on the user and the user experience with our device. But the next step is really the data that comes with it. That's that part where it's both accessing data and creating data through applications that they use to feed the data lakes above and to feed back into this IoT world where there's information coming up from our equipment and being fed back to us that we can take action on. And then, ultimately, we have to connect to systems of record. And this is where Tulip, for instance, one of our partners, plays such an important role. It's that connection between all of these things that talk together, the device, the data, and these decision-making systems of record, that now when they talk and connect, it's a very sticky situation. Now you've created more than just a point solution. You've created a system solution where you've changed the way people work, and you reduce friction in interacting with those systems. And I think that that's a real clear case. I'll give an example that RealWear did in a very simple way. We recently acquired a small company called Genba AI. Their whole purpose in life was to be able to take a CMMS system, which is done for maintenance purposes, and working with eMaint, which is a division of Fortive, and be able to then say, "We can take that currently operating device that requires a worker to print out a work order, go do something, and then put it back into a computer, we can now do that with voice only." So, again, you take friction out of that interaction and allow them to do things easier but with the systems of record. And so that's why I get so excited about partners like Tulip that are making and connecting the dots between all of these disparate systems that we find in fourth-generation industrial complexes and making them work together seamlessly to give information to make better decisions by the folks who manage that work. TROND: This makes me think of something that I promise we'll get back to in a second talking about the industrial metaverse, which I think is far more interesting than the consumer metaverse. And we'll get to that because you were starting with this whole ecosystem that starts to develop now. But before we get there, I just wanted you to comment a little bit on COVID, COVID-19. Massive experience; no one is untouched by this. And there clearly was a future of work dimension to it. And people have made a lot out of that and prognosticate that we will never show up in the office again, or hybrid is here forever. What did COVID do to RealWear? ANDREW: Well, you know, it's an interesting perspective. I've been with RealWear in one capacity or another since almost the beginning, starting off as a Strategic Advisor and Chairman of the Advisory Board to, stepping in as the COO during the series A, and ultimately becoming the CEO and Chairman of the board in 2020 just as COVID was happening. So a lot of that immediate experience of RealWear was at a time when the whole world was starting to shut down and realize that we had to work differently. So I literally had one meeting with my direct staff as the new CEO before Washington State was shut down. And all the rest of the year was done via remote work. So it's not a dissimilar story to what a lot of people went through in recognizing that, hey, what used to be done in the office and was deemed important to be done in the office had to now be done elsewhere. And we came quickly with this adoption of digital tools that supported this digital transformation. And what it really did was act as a catalyst because before, you could have a conversation about the value of remote collaboration software, laptop to laptop, and that sort of thing, but nobody was thinking about the front line as much. That was a really tall connection for RealWear to make. We'd go in and talk about the value of a hands-free remote connected worker. But when you suddenly had millions of displaced workers all contributing, in some cases with productivity increasing, it now said, hey, by the way, do you want to take this great hybrid environment you just created, and do you want to extend it to those important people who don't get to stay home, who don't get to dodge the risk of being exposed to COVID, who have to go out and serve the public or serve your customers? And now, if we talk about giving those people connectivity and extending that with technology that exists today using familiar platforms...RealWear runs on an Android 11 platform. That means imaginations are limitation, not technology. All those solutions we're talking about can be done in an Android environment, can be imported very quickly, and provide a solution for those users. And so it acted as a catalyst to say that remote experts at smart glasses, as it were, were here, and it was now, and this technology was ready. And the deployments took off. It probably shortened our deployment cycle. Our sales cycle probably contracted by 70% during COVID as people began to realize this is how we can get work done. This is how we can continue to serve our customers. And so it was a huge change, not only in terms of the demands that we were able to meet thanks to the great teamwork of our whole RealWear ecosystem and supply chain partners, but it also made a difference because it changed the thought processes of leaders who now realized that creating a connected worker not only was feasible, that it had a real, recognizable ROI to it. TROND: Andrew, you're really speaking to me here because eons ago, in my Ph.D., I was working on this very visionary idea back in 1999, the early internet heydays. Again, the future of work people and tech companies were saying, "We are soon unleashing the situation where no one has to come into the office. We will sit all separately on these islands and work together." So I would say I guess what has happened now is there's a greater awareness of the need for hybrid solutions meaning some people are physically there, others are not. But the powerful thing that you are enabling and demonstrating visually and physically is that remote is one thing and that it remains challenging, but it can now, in greater extent, be done. Physical presence is still really, really powerful. But what's truly powerful is the combination of which. It is the combination of physically being there and being amplified or assisted, or eventually perhaps in a fruitful way augmented but without losing touch with reality if it can be done safely. That's really the power. So there's something really interesting about that because you can talk about it all you want. You can say, well, with all the technology in the world, you know, maybe we don't want to meet each other anymore. Yeah, fine. But there's a powerful argument there that says, well if you combine the world's biggest computer, the human being, with some secondary computers, you know, AIs and RealWears and other things that have other comparative advantages, the combination of that in a factory floor setting or perhaps in other types of knowledge work is really, really hard to beat, especially if you can get it working in a team setting. I guess as you were thinking more about this as a futuristic solution, Andrew, what kind of changes does this type of technology do to teamwork? Because we've been speaking about the simple, remote expert assistance, which is sort of like one expert calling up another expert at headquarters. And then, you move into workflow, which is powerful product workflow in industry. But what about the group collaboration possible with this kind of thing? Have you seen any scenarios where multiple of these headsets are being used contemporaneously? ANDREW: Yeah, I mean, I think there's the application of not only people using them broadly in doing their work but also then being connected to a broad number of users. There's a great video that Microsoft put out when they built Microsoft Teams to run specifically on our RealWear platform. And in it, we talk about a plant where, you know, Honeywell was certifying a very large deployment technology in a plant that normally would take 40 workers to go to this facility and physically sign off all the things that need to be done for this large automation system. But using Microsoft Teams and RealWear devices, Honeywell was able to do that completely remotely. They were able to have the folks who were on site wearing the devices going through. And all of these people who would travel to it are now wherever they happen to be, in the office, at home, somewhere else, being able to see what was happening in the factory and sign off and validate the work remotely. So it's like this world where we've taken away the borders, these artificial borders between the office, not the office, and then the front line. And I think that the biggest thing that we can take away from this conversation today, Trond, is that we all probably accept that some form of hybrid work is here to stay with office workers. We've just proven over the last two years that you can work extremely productively as a remote team. And we've also validated there are times when we just got to come together from a human point of view to accomplish even more in terms of some of the cultural and emotional intelligence and teaming things that happen. But what we've also learned is that those frontline workers don't have the luxury of being somewhere other than where the value is being created on the manufacturing line, up on that cell phone tower, or in the street laying asphalt. They all have a job to do, and they have to do it in their presence. And so when we then connect those people and give them access to all of the information that we as connected workers in a hybrid environment accept and the collaboration, we find that that is a place that really brings the dignity of that frontline work up. It inherently makes them more engaged with their customer, with the job they're doing, with their peers that they can now connect to so seamlessly, and, frankly, with the company. So I think that there's a change here that's happening that's going to be about the right degree of connectivity for the job. And we'll do more of what matters based on the work that has to be accomplished. And we're just not at a place yet where robots are going to replace carbon-based computing systems that are self-replicating. That's the way NASA described people back, I think, in the '60s is a general-purpose computer that's carbon-based and self-replicating. And really, that's going to be with us for a long time. And the dignity of those people doing valuable work and helping focus on how do we make them safer and more productive in these very challenging environments? That's changing the future of work. And it's aligning more closely with this idea of, hey, being connected makes us more effective as a company, as a tribe, as a nation, whatever it is. Connectivity becomes extremely valuable. TROND: It's a big trend. And it's about time there's some justice to it. I mean, you speak with passion about this. It's almost unbelievable to me, and it should be [laughs] unbelievable to a lot of people, that we've invested billions of dollars in office software, in kind of automation for efficiency's sake. But we haven't, until this point almost, invested, certainly not the same amount of dollars and euros and yen, in human-centric technologies that are augmenting people at the same time. Because there's nothing wrong with these other technologies or if they're benefiting office workers, but as you point out, billions of workers could be enabled, knowledge workers. They just need somewhat different tools, and they're harder to make. This is not like making a desktop software program. These things have to work in a real rugged context. Andrew, thank you so much for enlightening me on the challenges and the exciting not future anymore. Andrew, it's the exciting presence of this technology in the industrial workplace, and what that bodes for the future when I guess, people see the picture and are willing to truly roll this out to every frontline worker who needs this kind of amplification. ANDREW: Well, Trond, thank you so much for having me. And I think when your listeners think and hear about AI, I know the first thing that crosses their mind is going to be this artificial intelligence, the compute power that's being built into the cloud to solve all these technical problems. But I'd like them to also begin to think about that as augmented intelligence, the way human-centric technology can make those workers better able to do the work that has to be done by people. And we're so excited to be able to talk about this. Thank you for the invitation to explore this topic. I really appreciate the chance to share some of the things that RealWear's done in this regard. And I'd love to come back next time and expand our conversation. TROND: You have just listened to another episode of the Augmented Podcast with host Trond Arne Undheim. The topic was Augmenting Workers With Wearables. Our guest was Andrew Chrostowski, Chairman and CEO of RealWear. In this conversation, we talked about industrial wearables now and in the future. My takeaway is that industrial wearables have come a long way. There is a big need for assisted reality in many workforce scenarios across industry. There are now companies taking good products to market that are rugged enough, simple enough, and advanced enough to make work simpler for industrial workers. On the other hand, we are far away from the kind of untethered multiverse that many imagine in the future, one step at a time. Thanks for listening. If you liked the show, subscribe at augmentedpodcast.co or in your preferred podcast player, and rate us with five stars. If you liked this episode, you might also like Episode 92: Emerging Interfaces for Human Augmentation. Hopefully, you'll find something awesome in these or in other episodes, and do let us know if you do so. The Augmented Podcast is created in association with Tulip, the frontline operation platform connecting people, machines, devices, and systems in a physical location. Tulip is democratizing technology but also, importantly, empowering those closest to operations to solve problems. Tulip is also hiring, and you can find Tulip at tulip.co. Please share this show with colleagues who care about where industrial tech is heading. You can find us on social media; we are Augmented Pod on LinkedIn and Twitter and Augmented Podcast on Facebook and YouTube. Augmented — industrial conversations that matter. See you next time.
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